20 States & UTs part of 'One Nation-One Ration' scheme: Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan

Union Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution Ram Vilas Paswan on Monday announced that 20 states and Union Territories have joined the central government's 'One Nation- One Ration' card scheme with the inclusion of Odisha, Sikkim and Mizoram.

'Necessary steps are being taken to connect other states'

Under the initiative, eligible beneficiaries under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) would be able to avail their entitled foodgrains from any Fair Price Shop in the country using the same ration card. In another tweet, Paswan said that by March 31 next year, the plan is to implement the scheme across the country. "In this series, necessary steps are being taken to connect Uttarakhand, Nagaland and Manipur by 1 August 2020," he added.

"Seeding Aadhar details with ration cards and installing point of sale machines at PDS shops are critical for enabling ration card portability," Paswan had earlier said.

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The other 17 states/UTs to have completed this process are Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Haryana, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Goa, Jharkhand, Tripura, Bihar, UP, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Daman and Diu.

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Food Secretary Sudhanshu Pandey, talking to reporters last month, said already intra-state ration card portability is being used, but the transactions are not significant. About one crore transactions a month are reported now. Inter-state portability has not yet picked up due to lack of awareness and suspension of biometric machines in view of COVID-19 pandemic, he said.

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"However, the issue has been sorted out with state governments. PDS (public distribution system) shop owners have been asked to keep hand sanitizer which the beneficiary can use, after and before using their finger for biometric identification," Pandey said. There are over 81 crore beneficiaries under NFSA in the country, for subsidised foodgrains of 5 kilos per person at Rs 1-3/kg.

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(With PTI inputs)